There are no free passes heading into football playoffs – even with a perfect record, says the head coach of the winning Cochrane High School Cobras.
“That’s our whole mandate: we’re going to get better every day,” a determined Rob McNab said this week. “We need to get better to reach our final goal.”
The final goal is to rise to victory at the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association (ASAA) Tier 3 Provincial Football Championship on Nov. 26. It’s not unfamiliar territory for the Cobras, who have taken the title three of the last four years – including in 2015, when they delivered a 55-0 trouncing to the Holy Rosary Raiders.
To get there this season, though, the Cobras will first need to play through and win division gold at the end of the month – and claim the regional banner two weeks after that. The first game in the Division A Semi-Finals takes place this Saturday at Legacy field against Airdrie’s George McDougall Mustangs.
“They tend to bring a lot of pressure. We’ll work against the pressure,” McNab said. “They like to blitz.”
Last week, the Cobras left the field with an impressive 49-14 win over Springbank – sealing up a perfect 4-0 record for the season. Despite the lop-sided score, McNab said the team could have performed better and still has lessons to learn before Saturday’s matchup.
“I thought we started out a little bit slow out of the gate,” he said. “The execution wasn’t as sharp as it could have been,” he said, pointing to a couple of fumbled plays and penalties. “We made some mistakes.”
Saturday’s Cobras game at 12:15 p.m. is part of a playoff triple-header at Legacy Field – the Bow Valley Bobcats, who came into the Division B playoffs with a 2-2 record, kick start the day of football at 10 a.m. with their matchup against Airdrie’s 0-6 Bert Church Chargers.
